Erlete Rosalina Vuaden

A randomized controlled trial of homeopathic treatment of weaned piglets in a commercial swine herd

AIM To evaluate the zootechnic performance and occurrence of diarrhea in piglets in the week post-weaning comparing supplementation with sucrose saline which contained or did not contain added homeopathic medicine. METHOD Animals were randomly divided into three groups of 24 piglets each. The control group did not receive any treatment. Another group received sucrose saline, and the third group received sucrose saline with homeopathic medicine added, in the period of zero to seven days post-weaning. The homeopathic treatment consisted of Echinacea angustifolia, Avena sativa, Ignatia amara, Calcarea carbonica, all 6cH. Piglets were weighed daily for weight gain or loss, and observed for diarrhea and feed intake. RESULTS Animals receiving sucrose saline alone and sucrose saline with homeopathy had less weight loss than control (p=0.017, p=0.0001 respectively). There was no statistical difference in relation to overall incidence of diarrhea or food consumption. These data suggest that the supplementation with sucrose saline with added homeopathic medicine in the first seven days post-weaning may be an useful option to reduce weight loss in weaned piglets.

Detection of leptospires in clinically healthy piglets born from sows experimentally infected with Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis that causes reproductive disorders in swine. The isolation of leptospires from aborted fetuses, stillbirths and weak piglets was obtained in several occasions, however, the bacteria was never isolated from apparently healthy piglets born from apparently healthy infected dams. Six sows of the Landrace breed with a known date of service and pregnancy confirmed by ultrasonography were infected intravenously with 5ml of Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola inoculum between 76 and 90 days of gestation, and one week after farrowing, at least one piglet per sow was euthanized and samples of liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, spleen and gastric content were taken and examined by PCR. Reproductive disorders or any clinical sign of infection were not observed in the inoculated sows. The piglets born from these animals presented no clinical signs or macroscopic lesions that could be attributed to leptospirosis. All inoculated sows presented anti-leptospires antibodies by microscopic serum-agglutination test (MAT) in the postinoculation serum samples and leptospires were not found in the urine as well as were not detected by PCR applied in this material, however, PCR accomplished in kidneys and liver from a euthanized sow presented positive results. Of the total of 12 euthanized piglets, 10 (83.3%) presented positive results by PCR in at least one of the kidney, liver, heart, spleen, lung and gastric content samples. The present study reports the vertical transmission of the infection and the detection of leptospires in clinically healthy piglets born from experimentally infected sows, which is important of the epidemiological point of view as the maintenance of clinically healthy infected animals may allow the persistence of the bacteria in the herd, exposing other animals to the risk of infection.